Jesus and the god of the OT could not be more opposite! This is a massively failed argument. I would sure like to see the Biblical accounts recounting all the genocides, small-scale murders, plagues, blood lust and general mayhem recorded in Jesus' activities that have any
resemblance to OT stories.
Oh, you can find the Father of Christ (the God whose Image is Christ) in the OT also. As well as see how it is Israel who kept going astray and NOT acting in mercy and love. In passages like this (which apply to the people now as well):
"Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisons and seem eager for God to come near them.
Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth an ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly apper;
then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of hte LORD will be your rear guard
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
It continues, but I hope you get the point that God always asked for mercy, for justice, that the oppressed be set free, and the poor cared for, etc.
This is the God who sent Christ, who Christ loved and said was His Father, who Christ is the IMAGE of, and who Christ learned FROM. The same God who gave the law... love God, and love your neighbor as yourself; and these are the two laws that all other laws stem from. The law of love; that men twist to their own ends.
This is why I reject some (or at least the interpretation some give... knowing that we do not have all the facts from this one book) Because it is Christ and HIS Father, who I follow. God, as shown and known and seen ... by looking at Christ.
Why would God send the Truth, ADCMS... if people already knew the truth? Why would Christ have had to correct people in their understanding... and lack of mercy, if they were already doing everything as God decreed?
Peace,
tammy
